38. Aiden

Chapter 38

Aiden

Dawn filled the room with crimson light.

My eyes felt filled with sand every time I blinked, but I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t leave Maz alone as he suffered through the night. My singing had soothed him somewhat when he woke for a few brief moments. My voice had been rough and out of practice, but strangely, the song had brought me a small measure of peace as well.

Perhaps because I’d been tempted to sing for the first time in a long time earlier that day. But such simple happiness never lasted.

I’d had to carry both Ruru and Kiera to bed as they’d fallen asleep at his side. I’d taken Kiera’s stained shirt off her, trying not to think about how different things were the last time I’d removed her clothes merely one night before.

I’d attempted to tug off her boots, but she’d whimpered and held onto them. Perhaps fear still pumped through her body. I’d seen some warriors fall asleep fully clothed and armed between skirmishes, unwilling to be caught off guard.

That same fear had flooded my body like lightning when I saw her dragging Maz. She’d been drenched with blood, her face pale as death. I’d been searching the alleys for hours when I couldn’t find her among the taverns. I’d started to think that both she and Maz were lost to me.

My business with Melaena had been short. I’d told her we’d got Garyth’s family out safely, and she told me that Renwell had burst in with his Wolves. He’d searched every room but found nothing before seeming to realize his quarry must be headed for the city gate.

She’d stashed the papers that Helene had given her, and I told her to keep them. She would have to be one of Everett’s best allies and closest resources once his father was dead.

Then I’d asked her about Maz, and she said he’d never shown up there either.

Gods, if I hadn’t stumbled on Kiera and Maz when I did... If Kiera hadn’t found enough silvertree powder... If I hadn’t paid Skelly a year’s wages to find some in the secret markets of Eloren...

I stared at the hard gray shell over Maz’s shoulders. The powder had cauterized his wounds and would protect his raw skin until it began to scab. Then I would have to dampen it to get it to dissolve. But it could take days, and we only had a week left here.

The door opened, and Nikella slipped inside with her walking stick. She never went anywhere without it or the spear it usually carried.

“How is he?” she whispered, nodding to Maz.

“The same,” I said, scraping my palms over the stubble on my cheeks and jaw. “He woke for a few moments last night. He was coherent enough to understand what happened.”

Nikella sat next to me on my cot, which I’d dragged next to Maz’s. “I imagine he didn’t take it well.”

“No.” I remembered his anguished face when I’d told him of the damage. Korvin’s knife had cut away something much deeper than skin. “But he’ll rally. He always does.”

Nikella rested her hand on my shoulder, the most affection she usually showed. “We should discuss your plan.”

“It hasn’t changed.”

“Perhaps it should.”

I grunted, raking my hands through my hair. “The loss of Maz as a fighter and leader is great, yes. But we can still carry on.”

Nikella pinned me with her usual stare. “You’ve also lost Garyth and Asher. Renwell is suspicious of Melaena and seems to be drawing lines between all of us, using your heist. I’ve moved out of the Temple for Librius’s sake, but how long before he discovers where we are and what we’re doing?”

“I’ve been playing this game with him for years, Nikella, and he still hasn’t caught me.”

Her hand fell away from me. “I played games with him for much longer than you have. You can’t out-manipulate him.”

“Then I’ll kill him too,” I snarled. “He deserves it for this. For everything else.”

Nikella silently looked at me, unperturbed that I’d just threatened to kill her brother.

“I can’t stop now,” I said, a needle of desperation piercing my anger. “We’re so close. I thought I’d never have this chance again, but I do. And nothing will stop me from taking it.”

“Is it worth your life? His?” She nodded to Maz. Then at the door to the next room. “Theirs?”

My heart wrenched, trying to block the fear that battered it. “I won’t lose them. I can keep them safe.”

We sat in silence, letting the frailty of my promise tremble in the morning light.

I could lose them. I’d lost many before. But my courage couldn’t bear that truth just now.

Don’t mourn what you haven’t yet lost.

That was what Maz had told me when it was Kiera’s unconscious body I was staring down at.

But they were still here. They were still alive, and I would keep them that way. By killing Weylin—and Renwell, if I stumbled across the rat.

“Get some sleep,” Nikella finally said. “I’ll watch him.”

I didn’t argue with her. She folded her cloak on the floor for a cushion while I pushed my cot away from Maz’s and collapsed onto it.

Sleep overwhelmed me, blessedly empty darkness.

When I woke, sweaty in the afternoon light, Nikella looked as though she hadn’t moved a muscle. But Kiera and Ruru were awake, eating cheese and fruit with some bread. Kiera clutched a brown bottle of some liquid in her lap.

Her eyes met mine immediately, and some of the tension melted from my body. I knew that brief, blazing happiness I’d found with her in that tent in the woods wouldn’t last. But, gods damn it, I wanted to find it again.

Soon.

Despite the sleep she must’ve finally gotten, her face was still pale and drawn. A frown pinched my lips, and she looked away.

Perhaps she wasn’t so eager to revisit our time in the woods.

The tension seeped back into my muscles, and I rose wearily from my cot. I checked Maz’s back, pleased that no blood had leaked through, and the silvertree casing hadn’t cracked. Someone had already replaced the dirty water and towels from last night.

I was about to leave for a wash myself when Maz groaned and shifted. I flew back to his side. “Don’t move too much, Maz.”

“Fucking Four,” he mumbled into his pillow. “It itches like a thousand mosquito bites.”

A grin strained my tired face. “Glad to hear it, brother. Means it’s working. Can you drink? Eat? You need to get your strength back up.”

Maz grunted, which I took to mean yes.

Kiera and Ruru rushed over with the remnants of their lunch. They fed him bits of it while Nikella quietly excused herself to ask Sophie for more.

Kiera flashed the bottle she’d been holding at him. “Sunshine, Maz,” she said in a brittle voice. “You said mead could cure anything, right?”

He huffed a laugh, then grimaced in pain. “I sure did, lovely. Gods, I love you.”

I stiffened, but she smiled, tipping the bottle to his lips.

Ruru fed him a chunk of bread, and Maz smiled at him. “I love you too, Ruru.”

Then he looked past them to me, his eyes warming with gratitude. “And you, brother.”

A lump swelled in my throat. “Look at you, not even drunk yet, and proclaiming love for everyone in the room.”

“Nearly dying makes a man think. Tell Nikella I love her too when she gets back. No, wait, don’t. I want to see her face when I say it.”

I shook my head with a chuckle. Fierce hope blistered a hole in my chest. If he was back to talking like his usual self, that was a good sign there might not be lasting damage. But I also knew that he joked to hide his pain. And judging by the creases near his eyes, he was in a lot of it.

I poured him a cup of water and nudged it into Kiera’s other hand. “Give him some of this, too.”

She gazed up at me, a storm of emotions brewing in those lovely eyes. Our fingers brushed together, and she bit her lip before quickly bringing the cup to Maz. A little water sloshed over the rim.

He looked between the two of us, a mischievous look erasing some of the pain there. “I will also need a story later,” he said pointedly. “The other half of the cure, you know.”

I rolled my eyes at him as he slurped his water.

But the exasperation and joy at his consciousness drained away as the harsher realities settled back in. I needed to ask him what happened. Later, when we were alone. I let Kiera and Ruru have their moments of happiness with him.

After I’d sent them off to Sophie to help her with the laundry and to take baths themselves, I sat next to Maz. Nikella had gone back to the Temple to check on Librius, leaving just the two of us.

Some of his pain had eased with food and water—and Kiera’s Sunshine—but he was starting to fade once more.

“You love her, don’t you,” he said between labored breaths. “Kiera. I saw it on your face when I told her.”

My fists clenched. “That’s not what we need to talk about.”

“I disagree.”

“Of course you do.”

He groaned. “Just admit it, you stubborn ass.”

“It’s not important right now.”

“Oh, it matters much more than you think it does.”

I glared at him.

“Do you?” he prodded.

My heart pounded faster and faster, as if trying to outrun the truth. But it couldn’t. I couldn’t. It filled every inch of my skin, every drop of my blood, every breath in my body.

“Yes,” I said quietly. “I do.”

Maz gave me a sad smile. “Yes. You do. I need you to hold onto that—hold onto her —for the battle to come. I need someone you love watching your back since I won’t be there to do it. Someone who loves you, too.”

I swallowed against the sharp knot in my throat. “Nikella will be watching my back.”

“You need Kiera too,” Maz insisted. “I feel it”—his fingers tapped his side near his stomach—“in here.”

I chuckled dryly. “And your gut’s never been wrong.”

“Never.” He smirked. “Except maybe about Lorel. I think she really did know that Bella was in my tent when she set it on fire.”

I laughed with my whole chest, and Maz joined me in a wheezing way.

“I appreciate your concern, brother,” I said, “but we need to talk about what happened. Tell me everything.”

Maz grimaced and closed his eyes. “There’s not much to tell. I went for a drink at The Weary Traveler , but got jumped from behind before I reached it. I woke up strapped to a table with that bloody crow of a man, Renwell , standing over me.”

My jaw flexed. If I ever got a hold of that gods-damned murderer...

“He asked me where the gold was. Somehow, he knew it was me at the heist.”

“One of the servants must’ve talked.”

“I told him I knew nothing and that perhaps he could find it up his own ass?—”

“Maz,” I groaned.

“What? He just smiled at me like he knew something I didn’t. Then he asked about Nikella. I don’t know how he found out about her, but I told him demons from the Abyss didn’t have sisters.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Fucking Four, Maz, is that when Korvin started slicing you?”

Maz grew solemn. “No. That came later. He must’ve drugged me because the next thing I knew, that maniac was carving away my life. I thought I heard a woman screaming. But I didn’t see anyone else.”

I grimaced. Renwell might have more prisoners in his Den. Garyth was probably there, if he was still alive.

Maz groaned. I rose and squeezed a drop of dreamdew from one of his darts into his water cup. I tipped the cup into his mouth, making him drink the whole thing.

“Since you sent away my lovely, you’ll have to tell me the story of what I missed,” he said, slurring, his eyelids already drooping.

I told him of our escape with Garyth’s family. He was snoring before I even spoke of The Twisted Tail.

“Dream well, Maz,” I whispered.

I sat back and waited for the others to return. The truth he’d gotten me to admit swirled around me like a restless wind.

As much as Maz wished to protect me, I still couldn’t let Kiera in on the rest of my plan. I couldn’t put her in worse danger by dragging her back to the palace to face the man she was running from. And I didn’t want her to try to convince me otherwise if she knew how I felt about her.

That I did love her. That she’d stolen bits of my shattered heart since the moment she freed me from my chains.

So, I would ready my weapons. I would put Maz on the ship when it arrived.

And I would rid Rellmira of its greatest threat before I found Kiera again and begged her to take the rest of my heart in exchange for hers.